


Bubble Tea

by minmungi (shuuvee)



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Retail, Crack, Fluff, Kihyun's heart is the one throbbing, M/M, Minhyuk Is a Heartthrob, bubble tea, some feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 21:06:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13443393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shuuvee/pseuds/minmungi
Summary: Kihyun gets promoted to manager at his minimum-wage job. He's fine with all the extra responsibilities -- he's not fine with who he's in charge of.





	Bubble Tea

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a two-shot! The second chapter will be posted soon hopefully. This story was inspired by this gifset: http://dyegu.tumblr.com/post/169396718090/m1nbebe

“Number forty-fo—”

“—It’s okay, boss, I’ll just deliver this one.” The taller boy took the drink right out of his hand, swooping around him and heading out into the rest of the store. Without hesitation, his subordinate looked back and shot him a wink.

Two weeks ago, Kihyun’s life was easy – and it was actually going pretty well, too. He had just gotten promoted to manager and, with the promotion, an extra $2 an hour. To be honest, he wasn’t entirely sure why the general manager thought it was a great idea to promote a kid with bubblegum-pink hair to be in charge of the store when she wasn’t there. And it wasn’t like he worked especially hard, but he was punctual and usually focused. Keyword: usually.

You see, when they bumped Kihyun up to manager, they naturally had to find someone to replace him as not-manager. The GM interviewed candidates throughout the week, and she selected one before Kihyun even met the guy. The first time Kihyun interacted with the mystery new employee was during his weekend shift, his second week being in charge. He was entirely prepared for the pressure of being slightly more responsible in his menial retail job – he was totally unprepared for _who_ he was responsible for.

Enter Lee Minhyuk. 

Kihyun was opening two weeks ago. It was quiet; the shop didn’t usually get busy til later in the afternoon. His craft? Bubble tea. It wasn’t, like, unheard of for someone to come in at opening. Noon rolls around, Kihyun unlocks the door, and before he can get back to the counter and start prepping the “kitchen” – a cheeky name for their drink-making station – the bell at the door rings. Kihyun keeps his nose down, his focus on stacking the medium-sized cups. The click of the customer’s boots kept going and going and… going? Until it sounded like the customer was actually behind the counter.

“Hi!”

“Ah,” Kihyun recoiled, not expecting the loud, slightly nasally-sounding, _very male_ voice being that close. “You can order _behind_ the counter.”

He finished stacking the cups and turned around to face the intruding boy, and he just about had the wind knocked out of him. The boy was easily a few inches taller than him, light blonde-almost white hair falling messily over his forehead. He was dressed casually, a loose-ish-fitting fluorescent pink T-shirt draping over his shoulders. However, beyond his bright-ass T-shirt and his super-light hair was what caught Kihyun’s attention most: the boy’s toothy grin that seemed to hog the taller boy’s entire face, dominating his features.

“Um, actually, I’m Lee Minhyuk, I’m supposed to be working this shift…” the taller boy replied, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. 

Kihyun just kinda stared back at the taller boy, letting a few moments of awkward silence take hold.

“You… you’re Lee Minhyuk,” Kihyun mumbled in more of a matter-of-fact way than a questioning way.

“Yeah.”

“You’re the one working here.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m… I’m in charge of you.”

“I think so?”

Fuck.

Fast-forward two weeks and the f-bomb still pretty accurately captures Kihyun’s brain whenever he sees Minhyuk. Sometimes it’s followed by a “you” – or, more recently, a “me” – afterwards, but the overall process of Kihyun’s brain short-circuiting in the presence of Minhyuk is the norm. Like, when Kihyun was supposed to teach Minhyuk how to use the register, his words altogether failed him, his train-of-thought falling apart time and time again. Minhyuk kept having to suggest the next step just to snap Kihyun out of his stupor. Teaching the blonde-haired boy how to make bubble tea was just as arduous.

Kihyun was sure it would get better – sure, he had mini-crushes before, but nothing that seriously distracted him. He was pretty laser-focused about avoiding relationships after his last shitty one. But, no matter how much he tried, Minhyuk just seemed to pop up in his head all throughout the shift. 

It didn’t help that Minhyuk was the only other one there on the weekends.

It also didn’t help that _he was pretty sure Minhyuk caught onto his little problem_. At first, the taller boy was all polite – a little casual, sure – but he was always deferential to Kihyun, always letting Kihyun call the shots, always treating Kihyun with a decent amount of respect. All of that seemed to evaporate now, and it was replaced by shit like _that_ , like taking drinks right out of his hand and walking them to the customer like _Kihyun told him not to do_.

The other source of flagrant disrespect was Minhyuk’s disregard for the dress code. Case in point: today, Minhyuk was wearing that same fluorescent-pink T-shirt as two weeks ago, but this time _with the sleeves rolled up_. Yeah, he was practically wearing a tank top. How fucking rude! – to the customers, of course. Kihyun scolded him, but Minhyuk just laughed and said that he was washing the company shirt and that it didn’t really matter, did it. Kihyun always sighed in response and told him to wear the company shirt next time, but, goddamnit, he never did. Every single weekend shift, Kihyun had to sit there and watch Minhyuk flaunt his biceps, watching them flex while Minhyuk worked. 

The newest problem was the worst: Minhyuk started flirting with the customers.

No, not the female customers. _The male ones_.

Kihyun seethed, watching every boy’s reaction like a hawk. Some were extremely confused when Minhyuk winked at them. Some of them watched Minhyuk in awe (lust?) as he backtracked to the kitchen. Others looked like they were about to hit on him – and those customers seemed to come around more. _It was so unprofessional!_ None of Minhyuk’s other antics riled him up like this, and he was going to make sure that Minhyuk never heard the end of it once they closed.

And so he let his feelings sit there. They percolated, vacillating with temporary fits of internal rage punctuated by cooling-off periods of forcing Minhyuk to work in the back. He simmered, boiled, and just-about-exploded – he was hyping himself up all shift for the verbal tirade he was going to unload on Minhyuk for being such a goddamn disrespectful worker. God, that boy was never going to hear the end of it.

Finally, the end of the shift did roll around. The last of the customers cleared out; Minhyuk tossed out the leftover straw wrappers and cups, and Kihyun locked up the register. Just as they were finishing up, Kihyun finally spoke up.

“ _Minhyuk_ ,” he said darkly.

“Hmm?” the other boy replied, seemingly oblivious to Kihyun’s tone. Minhyuk was more focused on sweeping up the floor than paying attention to Kihyun, and it only peeved him more.

“We need to talk.”

“Okay, what about?” Minhyuk was still sweeping away, not even sparing a glance for his boss.

“Privately.” Kihyun gritted his teeth.

“Um,” Minhyuk started, looking around. “There’s no one else here, boss.”

“ _In the back!_ ”

“O—okay, boss, whatever you say,” the taller boy replied, propping the broom up against one of the tables. Kihyun marched toward the supply closet in the back with Minhyuk following not far behind. It was cramped, and Kihyun had to crane his neck up a bit to glare into Minhyuk’s eyes, but he wasn’t about to confront Minhyuk in the middle of the store – not with the floor-to-ceiling windows giving everyone outside a perfect view of the scolding Kihyun was about to unload.

He tried starting a little more diplomatically than he actually felt: “You’ve been really unprofessional lately, Minhyuk.”

The taller boy stared back at him for a few moments. “Uh, what do you mean?”

“ _I mean that you’ve been_ ” – Kihyun started counting Minhyuk’s misdeeds with both his hands – “one, showing up late, two, breaking the dress code, three, chatting with the customers too much, four, _flirting with the customers_ , five, undermining me, and it all needs to _stop_.”

Kihyun exhaled, getting through his list. Minhyuk just stared back at him, his expression relatively unchanged.

“Um, Kihyun,” Minhyuk started.

“Yes?” the shorter boy harshly replied.

“Is there any reason you held up two hands to count if you only had five things on your list orrrr—”

“— _This is exactly what I’m talking about_ ,” Kihyun shouted.

“Okay, okay,” Minhyuk giggled, which only infuriated Kihyun more. “Let’s go through your list one-by-one then?”

Kihyun nodded, rolling his eyes before locking his faux-menacing gaze back onto Minhyuk.

“So, first, I was late today,” Minhyuk slowly said. “Yeah, I was late, I told you that the subway was delayed. I tried to catch the express train but it was also running late, I’m sorry. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“Okay,” Kihyun grumbled.

“Second, breaking the dress code,” Minhyuk continued, massaging his bare biceps. “I work out in the morning, and my arms are usually pretty sore afterwards. It feels better without any fabric on them, and I figured the dress code was pretty lax around here considering my boss has bubblegum-pink hair—”

“—My hair has nothing to do with your flagrant disregard for the rules!”

“—And because you kept checking me out while I was working—”

“— _I was not checking you out!_ ”

“—I figured that it was okay to roll up my sleeves,” Minhyuk finished, still massaging his arm. There were silent for a few moments. Kihyun was still seething, and he kept glancing over at the taller boy’s arm every few seconds, drawn by the rhythmic motion. 

“Are you sure? Because you’re kinda checking me out right now…”

“ _I am not!_ Kihyun shouted. He focused his eyes directly on Minhyuk’s eyes, making sure not to move them an inch for any distraction.

“Okay, whatever you say, boss. I’ll roll down my sleeves next time,” Minhyuk acquiesced. “Okay, so third and, well, fourth, because they kinda go together. I talk and flirt too much with the customers.”

Kihyun was watching the taller boy’s every move, hyper-focused on every facial expression. 

“Yeah, I can be a little flirty. I guess I’m just charming? I like to make the customers want to come back, you know?” Minhyuk smiled a little and fluttered his eyelashes. It was like an aphrodisiac to Kihyun, his focus breaking.

“Y-yeah, but do you really need to be that flirty? Can’t you, like, just hand them their drink and leave? You’re not even supposed to hand-deliver drinks here.”

“Kihyun?”

“What?”

“Are… are you a little… _jealous_?”

Kihyun paused for a moment before blowing up: “ _Jealous!? Why would I be jealous!?_ ”

“Well, um, I just can’t figure out why you’re so upset about this. And between you checking me out and you getting angry when I flirt with other boys… well.”

“I swear to god, Minhyuk,” Kihyun growled, pushing Minhyuk’s shoulders back against the wall. Minhyuk’s eyes grew super wide, and Kihyun was breathing heavily, exhales ghosting across Minhyuk’s neck. Minhyuk gulped and stared back at Kihyun’s narrowed eyes. A tuft of blonde hair had fallen down, shielding his eye a bit from Kihyun’s piercing gaze.

“And, uh, fifth, undermining you,” Minhyuk whispered. “Well, it seems like it makes you all kinds of horny,” Minhuk continued, notioning toward Kihyun’s knee, which the pink-haired boy had subconsciously wedged between Minhyuk’s thighs, almost pressing up against the inseam of Minhyuk’s shorts.

Kihyun felt a wave of mortification spread over him, quickly removing his knee from Minhyuk’s nether-regions and releasing his grip from Minhyuk’s shoulders. He stepped back a bit, allowing Minhyuk to rest a bit and an awkward silence to fall over them.

“I mean, we can go continue this somewhere else if you want…”

“No,” Kihyun sharply replied.

“Or I can quit so you don’t have to see me anym—”

“—No!”

Minhyuk bit his lip. “So you don’t want me to quit, but you also don’t want to hook up, and you also don’t want me flirting with random boys, and, uh, making you all horny during the day with my sleeveless shirts and awesome bubble tea-making skills…”

Minhyuk’s voice trailed off before he eventually finished his thought. “What _do_ you want?

Kihyun looked down. He didn’t know, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t know what to think, and he wasn’t sure what he wanted from Minhyuk. He couldn’t process it, he couldn’t process all of the feelings flooding him right now. He licked his lips, and nervously ran his hand through his pink hair, pushing tufts of it back from his forehead. He looked back up at Minhyuk.

“Time!” he blurted out. “I need time.”


End file.
